John Jones '77 Tapped for Judicial Conference Committee

john jones '77, trustee

John Jones '77, U.S. district judge for the Middle District of Pennsylvania and a Dickinson trustee, has been appointed by Chief Justice John Roberts to serve as a member of the Committee on Judicial Security, a standing committee of the Judicial Conference of the Unites States.

The 26-member Judicial Conference is the policy-making body for the federal-court system. Each Judicial Conference committee reviews issues within its established jurisdictions and makes policy recommendations to the Conference as a whole. Committee appointments rotate annually and, as a general rule, are for a term of three years, subject to one reappointment.

Since being appointed to the U.S. District Court in 2002 by President George W. Bush, Jones has presided over several high-profile cases, including the 2005 landmark case Kitzmiller v. Dover School District, after which he held that it was unconstitutional to teach intelligent design within a public-school science curriculum. Jones and the Kitzmiller case were featured in the two-hour Nova special "Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial," televised nationally by PBS. He also has appeared as a guest on national television programs such as the Today show, PBS NewsHour and C-SPAN's America & The Courts.

Jones currently is presiding  over Whitewood v. Corbett, a case to legalize gay marriage in Pennsylvania. 

Published October 11, 2013